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With hundreds of ingredients in pet food now days it should come as no surprise pet owners are confused about which ones are actually good for their pet! Trying to decipher fact from fiction can be quite the task! A recent survey even showed that more than half of American dog owners think their dogs nutrition is more confusing than their own!

Luckily for me, I’m blessed enough to be a partnered with Purina which means I get help & key insight into these important topics! Recently I was invited to attend a YouTube Live session with Dr. Evan Antin! Also known as “The Sexiest Beast Charmer” thanks to People Magazine!

Myself, along side some of my fellow Purina Partners, got to have a raw Q & A with Dr Antin asking him any & everything about what we feed out pets! Here’s a summary of all the greatness!

Lets get started with the #1 topic in todays dog food: Bi-Product.

This is such a taboo word in dog food, however, the negative connotation associated with this word is a dog nutrition MYTH! I would compare it to Googling your symptoms on Web MD & then thinking you’re dying. What scares us as dog owners when we see this word is lack of proper education on the term! Here’s what Dr. Antin had to say about Bi-Product in dog food:

-Bi-Product is animal organ & bone. These provide micro nutrients, calcium from the bones, and other key nutritional needs. If we were to feed our dogs just meat, like what we consume, it would be lacking nutrients our dogs so desperately need. He then went on to give us a visual example of Bi-Product by saying “Wild animals go for the abdomen first. Animals know that’s good for them & rich with nutritional value and micro nutrients.” Dr. Antin also made a VERY GOOD POINT when he said that we would have to kill so many more animals if we didn’t use Bi-Produce which would also be extremely wasteful to discard all of those organs and bones that provide so much for our pets.

With the holidays around the corner we had to touch on “Holiday DO’S & DONT’S”. With family in town, that may or may not be used to having a pet, you have to watch for what they’re sneaking under the table to your fur baby! Or in my case, feeding him right in front of your face!

4) GRAPES & RASINS!! This was very interesting to me! What makes these so dangerous is that wether its 1 or an entire bag it doesn’t matter! Even just 1 rain can cause KIDNEY FAILURE! On that same note, your dog could have no reaction! This is SO SCARY TO ME!

5)Marijuana – so don’t sneak any special brownies, gummies, or any other foods with an extra kick of special butter in it to your fur baby this holiday!

Grain Free Dog Food: which I admit is something I did a lot of research on & spoke to my personal vet about it for Mulligan!

When asked about Grain Free food diet here’s what Dr. Antin had to say…

A Grain Free diet is good for dogs with GI issues or allergies. However, Grains have nutritional benefits as well as fiber & vitamin E value. Grain free is a trend and dog foods latest “fashion” but it should be used as an individual need not just something you should do.

Dental Health: Dry v Wet Food – does it have a big difference in dental hygiene and health for dogs?

Dr. Antin spoke on how this topic is still a big controversy in dog food debates! Saying the best thing to do for your dogs dental hygiene is to brush your dogs teeth! He also said that carrots are good for your dogs dental health as they help scrape off stuff on their teeth as well as raw hides.

(Which side note, dogs have special tooth paste so don’t go brush your dogs teeth with your Crest! Just throwing that our there! I do brush Mulligan‘s teeth! You can buy kits for this at Walmart, or any local pet store!)

SENIOR DOG FOOD BLENDS

Senior dog food blends are low calorie! Essentially senior dog food means low calorie! That being said if your dog is getting older and is less active or your dog is a couch potato (of any age)! A senior dog food died is great for older dogs that are less active, couch potato dogs of any age or dogs that are over weight needing to shed a few pounds! Not just senior dogs!

COMPANY SPECIFICS IN DOG FOOD SELECTION

When picking a dog food, one thing Dr. Antin stressed was knowing the companies specifics for making their dogs food, do they have vets on staff, etc.! This hit home for me! As someone who has seen behind the scenes of Purina, how the food is made, the research, the people behind it, the quality checks, etc. it is the ONLY brand dog food I feed Mulligan & suggest to my friends! It’s truly a company I stand by. This is something I feel is so important when choosing the right pet food for your fur baby! If you research and can stand by the companies quality you can know your pet is getting what it needs & know fact from fiction on the internet!

MEAT CHUNKS IN DOG FOOD: Is this something we should or shouldn’t do? Especially, for those of us who have dogs that pick them out before eating the rest! Is this good? Bad? Otherwise?

Dr. Antin says these can be high in sugar & more like a treat! If the bag says the chunks are “Animal Product” you’re in the good! However, like a treat ratio with your pet, calories are everything!

It was so fun sitting in & participating in this YouTube live session with Dr. Antin hosted by Purina! I love getting the chance to learn more about whats best for Mulligan while getting other peoples opinions & a vets point of view! You can learn more about pet nutrition, or explore your questions further at Purina.com/nutrition!

Hope you guys found this as informative & helpful! Not only the holidays do’s and dont’s but the information for your dogs everyday health care! Make sure to click on words like “Purina” or “Dr.Antin” throughout the blog for a direct link to their pages & social media! See you guys next time!!

Thank you, Mulligan, for being my best friend & better half. Thank you for being my big baby & for letting me be your embarrassing mom! Life is so much more fun with you in it making sure there are no bad days!

This month is national pet month & we want to celebrate by pet praising! Purina is inviting pet owners across the nation to share their Pet Praising pictures. By simply going to pureloveforpets.com & submitting a photo to enter the Pet Praising sweepstakes! Sweepstakes last from April 26th to May 24th. You could win a professional photoshoot for you and your pet that will be featured on RealSimple.com! The website also is a great resource for celebrating National Pet Month and learning about all the great new items Purina has to offer!

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In 2015 I was blown away when Purina invited me to the Better With Pets Summit in New York and I was beyond blessed to be asked to attend the event again this year! If you know me, or keep up with Mulligan & I on social media, then you know this is my favorite event of the year! I get to see so many friends (my Purina family), make more friends, see New York, and be surrounded by people so crazy about animals that I fit right in instead of being the crazy animal lady!

If you remember from last year, I hadn’t flown in since 9/11! This year I just hadn’t flown since last years summit! I wasn’t near as scared going through the motions this time so when they wanted to search me down, asked if I wanted a “private search” & felt me up through security I let security know “the least you could do is buy me coffee or lunch or something after catching a feel”…

MOVING ON!

I WAS SO EXCITED TO GET THERE & SEE EVERYONE! I met up with my friends Ashley (TurboRoo’s mom) & Liz (Sadie & Knox’s mom) at the airport where we finally crawled in the back of a “not so sure this is a cab” to get to our hotel!

OH MY DOG THE HOTEL! I could have sat in that room looking at the view for days! IT WAS BREATH TAKING! Melissa Trippy & I enjoyed this view until we couldn’t hold our eyes open any longer!

The next morning was BETTER WITH PETS!! I was so excited I could hardly sleep! Besides the obvious things like seeing friends, playing with cats & dogs, etc. what I love about the Better With Pets Summit is what I learn! I was a total nerd in college & it makes me feel like I’m back in school again – except I get to learn about animals & play with them at the same time so it’s way better! We covered a wide variety of topics like (1) Quality & Safety, (2) How Passion For Pets Builds A Better World – AMEN, and (3) The Science of Innovation Nutrition for Pets!

I’ll be breaking my Better With Pets post into sections because there is just to much greatness going on that I want to cover & you can only read so much on your bathroom break – yes I know. TO BE CONTINUED

Hello hello! You guys, I am T H R I L L E D for you guys to read this post and see what I was doing the last day of September! Lindsay Soulsby-Johnson is the founder of her own non-profit organization: Mulligan Movement- she donates her time and any money raised to animal shelters throughout the state of Arkansas to prolong and improve the lives of shelter animals. Check out Life of Mulligan on Facebook for the story behind it all and to see her incredibly sweet rescue dog, Mulligan.

She’s also an artist, attorney in training, and can build you one helluva a birdhouse-checkout The Bird Bungalow on Facebook and Instagram. Needless to say, we started out our afternoon together watching the new Amanda Knox documentary on Netflix, talking affordable art, marketing, discussing my jewelry line, and snapping some super cute pics!

Pet finder, the nation’s leading resource for pet adoptions, is celebrating some major accomplishments this year. Not only are they celebrating 20 years of adoptions & outstanding work – but also the celebration of more than 25 MILLION pets & pet parents that #MetOnPetfinder since the organization was established in 1996 by Betsy Banks Saul & Jared Saul in an effort to save the lives of adoptable pets in New Jersey!!!

In celebration of 20 years & millions of adoptions (on average 1.2 million a year), Petfinder is asking you to join their 20th anniversary celebration by helping them donate $200,000 to the Petfinder Foundation! The Petfinder Foundation will award grants to 20 shelters & rescue members. Each selected Petfinder shelter will receive a $10,000 grant to help continue to transform the lives of the pets in their care!

Here’s how you can help! To make this donation possible, Petfinder is asking us crazy pet lovers to watch their #MetOnPetfinder anniversary video, displaying the power of animal adoption on the lives of their new families! The goal is for the video to be viewed one million times by October 24th – in which Petfinder will make their #MetOnPetFinder donations totally at $200,000!

Pet finder has continued to encourage families to consider adoption when adding a pet to their family by removing barriers within the adoption process & giving shelters a way to get their adoptable babies out there for people to see! If you met your fur baby on Petfinder we would LOVE to hear your story!

Petfinder is encouraging families, advocates, and anyone else touched by Petfinder to share their Petfinder adoption stories on social media by using the hashtag #MetOnPetfinder! I love hearing all the different stories across the world that show how our lives are better with pets & would love to hear your #MetOfPetfinder story! Make sure to use the hashtag on social media & I will be reading stories throughout the next couple weeks!

Once again Purina is up to something exciting & this time your pet could win big and feel like the superstar we all know are pets truly are! Purina’s PureLoveForPets.Com will feature a lineup of Purina’s brand new products including Friskies “Pull’n Play cat treats that play back, Dentalife Daily Oral Care Dog Treats and Muse Masterpieces. All you have to do is play a quick & easy game for your chance to win! You owe it to your fur baby to give it a go!

Visitors can also participate in an instant win game for a dog/cat sample box loaded with all-star products.

And thats not all! Purina & LifeOfMulligan.Com will also be giving away a Dog Sample box to one of YOU!

Back in April, Mulligan & I were lucky enough to be invited to The Creative School in Fayetteville, Arkansas to speak about the Mulligan Movement!

Naturally, I stayed up all night making flatheads for everyone!

This was our first time being invited to speak at an Elementary school & I must admit, I was a little nervous! Not about Mulligan, because he’s GREAT with kids, but how I would explain some of these things to such a young age group! Things like…

How the animals ended up without a family

What it means to adopt a pet

Why people are sometimes mean to animals

How the shelter is not a bad place – even though sometimes the animals there have to go to heaven

Why we need to spay and neuter

Why second chances are so important

Why you should ask Santa for a shelter pet instead of a puppy (duh!)

These are all critical pieces of information & yet they need to be handled in the exact right way where the children not only grasp the importance and the seriousness of it all BUT also -and this is key- make it where none of them get upset!

Luckily, I had some help from the teachers explaining some things! One kid even told me afterwords, rather excited, that he, like Mulligan, was adopted! The kids loved Mulligan, who wanted to lick all of their faces, and the kids were excited about their flat heads!

Sorry for the picture quality but the simple fact is you can’t talk to kids, pass out flat heads, manage free kisses, and get amazing photos all at once! Thats not real life!

Those who weren’t scared of Mulligan were invited to come get some free kisses! Notice Sophie’s #MulliganMovement shirt! LOVE IT! Sophie’s mom is the one who invited us to The Creative School & we are so glad she did! Maybe they will have us back again one day!

Hopefully, we taught at least one kid something about shelter pets, encouraged someone to learn more, or even ask their parents if they could adopt a pet! At the very least they left with a flathead of a dog they know came from an animal shelter & that’s a good enough learning start for me!

More than half of our population of dogs & cats in America are considered to be overweight or obese. It’s currently the leading nutritional disorder for our pets & it’s time we take a stand. It should come as no surprise that the health risk we associated with obesity are similar to the health issues obesity can cause our pets. Many pet owners fail to realize their pet(s) even have a weight problem… a denial that leads to other health issues and a shorter life span. If it’s not our personal pet, we personally know one that suffers with obesity due to a poor diet and therefore it’s an issue we can all relate too.

Checking For Obesity: If you don’t know the weight or intended weight to be considered healthy weight for you pup, there’s a simple way to check and determine if your dogs weight is on track! Of course, there are many different breeds & it’s always a good idea to consult your vet with any questions and/or concerns you may have!

Following A Nutritional Plan: After consulting with your vet, if you find your dog to be over weight, or you want to take preventative measures, a nutritional plan is the perfect place to start. Your veterinarian can help work with you on the best feeding plan, based on your dogs specific needs & the back of the dog food will also have feeding instructions. It also helps to have a great brand like Purina offering a unique line of food that targets different, as well as specific, health needs for our dogs/cats with their Pro Plan Veterinary Diets. This line offers specific blends for obesity, gastroenteric issues, and more with no only a variety of blends but also wet food, treats, and more!

He clearly didn’t want to wait until the picture was taken to eat! He bumped half this cup in the floor just 5 short seconds later! Ha!

Measuring each serving is also a great way to manage their intake. Some dogs can handle a full bowl – the “grazing as you go” method – while others (who resemble me on a “diet” passing a pizza parlor & leaving with a large pizza for one…) need some supervision. You can find the proper size serving for your dogs ideas body condition on the back of the Veterinary Diet bags or by consulting your vet.

This also means limiting / substituting edible treats! Yes, the struggle is real, because I know I can’t say no to a bag of M&M’s & wish someone would limit me. None-the-less instead of always giving a treat as a reward, you can replace the treat with attention or a toy. (Side note: The police/military train their dogs with nothing more than the reward of a tennis ball!)

Paying special attention to the nutritional aspects of the treats we chose for our pets will also help tremendously! Don’t just grab any bag off of the shelf. Check to see where the products were made, their nutritional value, the ingredients, etc.

Best of all, Pro Plan Veterinary diets is loved by parents & their fur babies! Our dogs can have a delicious healthy meal while we can sleep easy knowing studies have shown that a healthy diet & maintaining an ideal body weight throughout their life has shown to significantly extend a dogs lifespan!

Last, but not least, take advantage of what your dog can also do for your health! By simply taking 20 minutes out of your day to walk your dog (whether is 5 here – 5 there, or all at once). This quick workout will not only help keep your dog fit, but also help you maintain a healthier lifestyle.

There is no need for obesity in pets! Especially, with such an easy solution to a longer healthier life! 🙂

Happy April, friends! I can’t wait to show you some of the fun things we have planned BUT I can’t right this second! In the meantime… here are some pictures from our sunset walk around Lake Fayetteville the other day!

That moment when you’re done taking pictures & want to get back to the walk!

Often times life gets in the way of life. We get so caught up in our day-to-day routine of work, chores, and responsibilities that we forget to actually live our lives. “Required life” gets in the way of “fun life” leaving little to no time to do the things we enjoy & new things we want to try out. When you’re an adult the weekend really means two days to do enough laundry to have clean underwear for the next week & a chance to scrub the bathtub and squeeze in errands.

I can tell you Im not going to be one of those people who drop their entire life to hit the road. You know, the kind you see on your social media feed that you read when you’re bored at work. The ones where their blog is filled with awesome pictures that leave you wondering where you went wrong in life as you sit in your cubical thinking who the hell is funding these awesome adventures? Not them with no job, right? THEY SAVED THAT MUCH? DOES THAT INCLUDE FOOD & SHELTER? HOW???? They always say it was the best decision ever. The best decision for them that is! BUT back here in my world I can admit I don’t have that financial luxury, a high enough limit on my credit card, or the desire to leave behind the life I love & have worked so hard to build.

It’s not “settling” or “being afraid to leave my comfort zone”. It’s actually loving & embracing the life I live. Why am I so happy with my life that some people would look at and call average? Because I’m not envious of others opportunities & everyday I am shown how lucky I am. If I want something, I will go get! If I want a change, I will make it happen! I’m not going to waist my already too short of a day doing anything but that. Life is what you make it & we all have different goals & aspirations! Here in Arkansas, Mulligan & I are making our own adventure that is unique and one of a kind. One I’m happy to be apart of & look forward to every day!

This year we will free up more time to explore like we used to, like we want to! With that I encourage you to get out & explore or free up more time for what you love or want to try out! If you need a buddy to explore with, or just desire an emotional support animal for those day-to-day struggles, adopt a pet. It will save your life!

Here are some pictures from yesterdays (2/27/16) hike around Lake Fayetteville. I woke up, cleaned house, did some work I needed to finish, ate with the family & most importantly – I set aside two hours to get out & explore with my best friend & my mom LIKE I WANTED TO DO WITH MY WEEKEND AND IT FELT SO GOOD!

Washing clothes can wait until the sun goes down!

Mulligan & my beautiful mom who will be mad I posted this picture! But seriously who’s hair looks that good hiking?